A Separate Cause
by bosscascade
Summary: The story of a new nation, born from the Separatists cause that fights for its independence from a Republic invasion. The campaign will be a long and bloody one, and will go down in galactic history as the Year of Hell.
1. The Last Days of Peace

A year into the Clone Wars, in one of the most violent periods of the war the Free Systems of O Fortuna, Gloria, and Bastion stands defiant against the oppressive Galactic Republic regime. A moderately wealthy Mid Rim state, that is populated by Echani with a minority of humans, it sits on the edge of the Outer Rim. Unbeknownst to the citizens of this system the Republic is moving towards them to "reclaim" these lost systems. On the anniversary of the declaration of independence from the Republic, the guards of Speculator listening outpost sitting on the edge of Bastion System on a small moon celebrate their freedom.

"On this today in the year 3255 our great system broke off from the chains of the Galactic Republic and joined the great Confederation of Independent Systems to protect our sovereignty from Republic aggression!" The Lord Protector of Augustus boomed. "Our great allies in our most righteous cause have proven worthy of our alliance by presenting us with not only reinforcements in the form of droids, but great victories worthy of our cause!"

I shuttered as I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Kinsaris." The voice whispered.

I turned around to see my friend Yusanis staring at me. Like other Echani, he had white hair, chalk skin, with silver eyes not unlike my own face.

"What?" I whispered back.

"Let's get out of here, the expedition legion has come back. They are going on tour through the systems and we are their first stop!" He whispered excitedly.

I nodded back to him and followed him out.

Yusanis was smiling and walked with a skip in his step. He began to babble enthusiastically about seeing the troops.

"While the rest of the Separatists Alliance use those useless droids, we use real soldiers! Use Echani do our own fighting! Our guys can take one enemy, force I heard they beat the 501st and I'll get to ask my brother all about it!."

I sighed, "You're lucky to have a brother who got into the expedition force. I wish I'd been able to join."

He looked back at me, "Oh ya, you're an only child. Ah well I'm sure we will see some live action eventually. Next year we will be 18 and then we can sign up for the expedition legion, but for now we just gotta deal with this post."

We watched as the first ships started touching down in the hanger. The first members of the expedition force started unloading their equipment.

I noticed some strange equipment being unloaded, it took me a moment to figure out what it was.

I looked closer and nudged my friend, "Are those the battle droids the Trade Federation promised?"

"I think so." He pointed to some brown ones. "See, those brown ones? I think those are the B1 battle droids. And those. He pointed to some bigger gray ones. "And those are super battle droids."

I frowned at the all the droids being uploaded. "Do we really need all these droids? Unlike those useless Neimoidians, we can hold our own ground."

Yusanis laughed, "Is this that noble pride I've heard so much about?"

"It's not pride!" I shot back. "You were just bragging about how much better we are than droids. I'm an Echani and I'm not gonna hide behind some lifeless machines!" I pouted "And I'm only a minor noble anyway."

He laughed back, "Relax, it's just a joke. Besides we need the manpower seeing how the Republic basically does the same thing with those clones. Now let's stop arguing this, it looks like they are almost done."

Another few minutes passed before all the droids were unloaded and the members of the legion dispersed throughout the base.

Yusanis stood up, "Come on, they're all coming out. Let's go find my brother!"

While looking for Yusanis' brother we passed a propaganda poster, it read.

"Resist the Jedi imperialists!" And pictured an Echani warrior holding back a Jedi holding lightsaber with his vibroblade.

Yusanis snorted, "Do we really need these posters? Everyone is willing to fight."

"Remember that traitor Senator Anvic and his so called 'loyalists' still has some supporters left."

"Pfft" He responded back. "Their such a minority, besides you think a poster will convince them to change sides."

I shrugged back, "I don't know, maybe they are supposed to be inspiring or something. Shouldn't ask the question if you don't want the answer."

After a few minutes of searching, we found Yusanis' brother next to the training room. Many other species say all Echani look the same, this goes extra for siblings. Besides for being a bit taller, as Yusanis' brother was three years older they were indistinguishable.

"Mikael!" Yusanis shouted.

Mikael looked up at his brother, "Yusanis!"

They embraced and began conversing. Yusanis was giddy to be talking to his brother after over a year apart.

"What's the front like! Did you see a Jedi!? Are they really as fighters as they are said to be?"

I looked down at Mikael's vibroblade, I noticed the handle had been changed from its usual gray color to gold.

"Did you get promoted?" I asked curiously.

Mikael looked confused for a second before looking down at his vibroblade.

"Oh yea, I was going to tell you that." Mikeal responded. "So listen to this. I was part of a small infiltration squad. We were sent to destroy some Republic artillery that was preventing the main droid army to march towards the main enemy line. We killed the guards and placed the explosives on the artillery, so we began to go back to our line. A little more than halfway back to our base a Jedi with five clones came out of nowhere. The clones suppressed us while the Jedi jumped 10 feet in the air and cut the head of the officer in charge, the second in command was critically injured by the clones not long after. So I took my pistol and blasted the clones closest to the Jedi while the rest of the squad began taking down the rest of the clones. I engaged the Jedi while she was distracted and landed a hit on her arm. We began dueling while the blasters flew around us from the crossfire, she almost got the upper-hand and knocked my vibroblade out of my hand. She got over confident for a moment and began to gloat, so I took the opening and punched her in the nose, then I quickly pulled out my vibroknife and stabbed her in the neck. By that time the clones had been killed and only one more soldier on our team had been injured. When we got back they decided to promote me!"

Both of our jaws dropped, killing a Jedi is something only few could pull off.

Yusanis spoke up first, "How, how did you do that? A jedi? How?"

Mikael smirked at that and said confidently, "Don't believe everything you hear about the Jedi, their arrogance is unmatched. Just look at them, no military training yet they lead the Republic army."

We kept talking for another to Yusanis until he had to go to train with his squad. We joined the independence celebration before going back to the barracks to sleep.


	2. The March to War

Author's note: Sorry about the short chapter, this is just another character introduction. From now on the chapters will be much longer. Also, thank you to anyone who has read this far.

On the command deck of the Republic _Venator_ -Class Star Destroyer the _Liberator_.

"Master." Jedi Padawan Alessia asked her master curiously. "What's going to happen when we reach the system?"

Jedi Master Leandra looked down at her Padawan, her steel blue eyes looked down at Alessia's innocent bright green ones. Master Leandra sighed inwardly, she always treasured her Padawans innocence and the upcoming campaign could very well take that from her.

"Tell me." Master Leandra asked kindly, "Why do you ask me this? Are you afraid of something?"

"I'm not sure." I responded sadly.

Master Leandra continued, "Are you afraid of the upcoming battles, or are you afraid of events being out of your control, of losing people because you couldn't control what is happening?"

"I…" I sighed, I looked up at my master, her concerned yet kind stare shamed me out of my stubbornness.

"You're right master, I'm am scared. I'll go meditate on your advice." I bowed to her and walked off the bridge.

During my walk to my room, I was fuming, " _Why am I so scared? It's just a few battles, many other Padawans my age have been in battles. I'm sixteen for Force's sake and a Mandalorian! And Master Leandra thinks I'm so innocent, so naive!"_

I finally reached my room, I ran in and immediately shut the door and fell on my bed.

" _Am I really a Mandalorian though? Master Leandra found me when I was four after my parents died. I never went through the intense training, I never was in any battle, and I never even received my armor."_

I punched my bed in frustration. " _I will do my part, I MUST do my part to end this force forsaken war."_

I stare out my window, through the strings of my black hair blocking my eyes. I watch as the blue tunnel of hyperspace slips by my window.

" _Well, it will only be a few days until we arrive. Maybe I should take my own advice and meditate."_


	3. The Storm Arrives

_Spectator Outpost listening station._

"Ma'am" a communications officer yelled _._ "We have unidentified ships about to come out of hyperspace!"

The communications chief looked down at the screen in horror, "By force, there are so many of them." The chief looked back at the communications officer, with a shocked expression on her face. "Can you access the validity of this?"

The officer typed furiously on his keyboard, the same look of terror that of the chief had was copied on the officer.

"Ma'am" The officer replied. "I double checked the scan and it is valid. A large fleet, most likely Republic is going to be here in a few hours, however, the Vanguard of the fleet is going to arrive in a bit over twenty minutes."

The communications chief had a mortified look on her face. "Sound the alarm, warn the rest of our space and request reinforcements."

25 minutes earlier

* _BEEP *BEEP *BEEP_

"Fuck that alarm!" I shot up from my bed and turned off the alarm.

I looked at the bed next to me Yusanis moaned and shook himself out of the bed.

"Fuck getting up at six every day." Yusanis said groggily.

I walked out of my room to the showers with Yusanis behind me. Unlike typical barracks in which there would be a dozen or more people stuffed in one room, _Speculator_ _Outpost_ only has two people per room and the bathroom which is shared by the block. _Speculator Outpost_ is a rather large outpost with four blocks with tweleve people in each block, along with some officers quarters in another section.

I took my shower and got dressed. I The gear us patrol soldier are given is a thin undershirt with an ultra lightweight armor plating (the lightweight is because of the Echani fighting style being very mobile and agile.) I picked up my vibroblade, blaster pistol, grenades, throwing knives, and a rifle, and with that set out for patrol.

20 minutes later

" _By Force patrol duty is boring."_ I looked over at my patrol partner, Yusanis got his patrol duty at the gunnery batteries today so I'm with Isaac today. Patrol duty members are randomly selected between us soldiers so we can get used to working together with everyone, even if we are in different squads. Isaac does share a squad with me and in case of an attack we have a pre-selected location to report too (for us it is the comms center.)

Isaac sticks out like a sore thumb being half human half Echani having brown hair and silver eyes with polish skin, but at least he was good for conversation.

"So Kinsaris," Isaac said quietly, "You hear the rumors that the Republic is making gains against the Separatists militaries?"

I stuttered a bit on hearing that. Even though everyone knew it, it still wasn't great to be reminded of it. "Yes, we all have, now let's stop talking about this and get back to patrolling."

Isaac looked down at the floor before nervously replying, "Aren't you worried though? They could be coming for us next."

" _Okay maybe scratch the good for conversation part."_ I thought to myself. I responded to Isaac, my voice full of confidence, "What? Even if the Republic is coming towards us we can hold our own. Besides, it will give us some action to break up this monotony."

"Eh, I guess you're right." Isaac responded unconfidently, "I guess this makes me sound like a coward doesn't it?"

I nodded back, Okay let's just forget about-"

 _*BEEP *BEEP ALARM: REPUBLIC FLEET DETECTED! REPORT TO BATTLE STATIONS *BEEP *BEEP_

The alarm kept cycling.

I looked at Isaac in shock. A mental message went through both of our heads.

" _This is it, they're here."_

We ran to our station, the alarms continued to blaze while the halls coated in red alarm light. We took our position near the communications center.

We waited for several minutes, each minute that went by felt like hours. Sweat was pouring down my face, I looked over to Isaac who was in a similar state of shock. I looked behind me, the other guards had copied our expressions. I worried about my friend Yusanis. He is guarding the gunnery station which will be an important target for the Republic.

Along with us, there are battle droids stationed with us. Right next to me is a short droid with an energy shield, I believe it's called a "droideka" and behind me are some of the standard battle droids and super battle droids.

The loudspeakers turned on, the inspiring female voice of the station chief shouted down at us.

"Soldiers of Speculator outpost!" The chief boomed, "The Republic is coming here to try to take our independence, to take our right to self-determination! We will fight them and buy time for the rest of our great nation! But, we will make them bleed! In just this one battle we will make the Republic bleed and suffer for daring to try to take what is rightfully ours! We will hold them off as long as we can and we will make them regret ever trying to invade our nation! We will show our strength to the Republic and its Jedi master and we will win! Who is ready to show the Republic our strength!?"

"I am ma'am!" A dozen voices shouted at once. The droids chipped in with a slightly less inspiring but funny, "Roger roger."

The chief came on the speaker again, "Republic Vanguard has exited hyperspace, prepare for battle!"

The station shook as turbo lasers struck the station. Holograms showed the guns on the moon's surface fire back at the battleships that exited hyperspace too close to range. We cheered with glee as a frigate that exited hyperspace on top of the station blew up, the turbolaser shot must of hit the frigates munition storage to create an explosion like that. The explosion created the best fireworks I had ever seen in my life.

The speakers powered on again, "Republic fighters coming down, drop pods and troop transports incoming."

We continued waiting as the Republic transports kept coming.

The field officer in charge of our position shouted out to us, "Second squad the Republic is targeting the gunnery head quarters, we need you to reinforce it. If that falls our guns go down with it!"

"Yes, sir! Let's go squad." Shouted the squad NCO name 'Victor'. The squad consisted of four people including Isaac and I.

The squad ran towards the gunnery command center, sweat pouring down my face in anticipation of the coming battle. Another explosion rocked the base. Several pipes that traced the roof split and began spouting freezing cold air.

"Come on!" the NCO motioned us to hurry up. "The Republic isn't going to go easy on our guys while you slackers fall behind.

We finally reached the main hallway that led the the gunnery station when the NCO shouted, "Contact!"

Each member of the squad except the droids dogged to a different cover. I moved behind a crate that had been left behind when the alarms started. The droids continued marching forward uncaring of their own safety.

I looked to my side at another hallway leading to another section of the base, I noticed a few clones had started charging down the hall.

"We're being flanked!." I shouted in alarm.

"They must have breached the eastern wing somehow!" Isaac yelled between shots.

Thinking quickly I primed a frag grenade and threw it at the flankers. Mid throw a blaster bolt flew mere centimeters away from my face. Time slowed as it flew by, I was nearly paralyzed with shock until it flew past and I let my grenade fly.

"Grenade!" One of the clones yelled, but I had my pistol already out and blasted one of the clones moving back. The blast killed the other retreating clone and forced the other two to stay down as the blast flew over their heads.

I was contemplating how to deal with the other clones when 3 super battle droids walked up behind me. The clones destroyed the one on the left side and began to fire on the next one when the center droid fired a wrist mounted rocket.

While I couldn't see the clones' faces under their visor, I could only imagine it being one of pure fear as they watched their deaths in slow motion as the rocket flew directly towards them.

* _BOOM_

The place where the clones had standing just a second ago erupted in a ball of fire. The broken forms of the clones littered the floor, their white fine armor shattered and charred.

"Flanks clear Kinsaris now come and help us!"

I shook myself out of my shock and moved back to assist the squad. Due to better cover on this hallway, the situation had changed little since I had left (besides two dead clones and a few dead battle droids) I joined to rest of the squad to deal with the flank.

We continued to exchange fire, but the stalemate couldn't be broken. The NCO realized this on decided to take a risk.

"Squad, prepare for flashbang. Once it goes off charge." The NCO whispered on the comms.

I watched as the NCO threw the flashbang, I closed my eyes and waited for the blast.

* _BANG_

"GO, GO, GO!" The NCO yelled.

I charged with my vibroblade out. The clones hadn't had enough time to react and we reached their position. The clones, not being properly trained or equipped for melee stood little chance against our Echani fighting mastery. I brought my vibroblade up to faint to the clone's head. The clone brought his rifle up to his head, expecting this I changed my target to his exposed armpit. I sliced up and severed the clone's arm and then I plugged the blade in the clones chest, finishing him. I heard another clone come up from behind. He attempted to bring up his blaster to shoot me, but I spun around on lobbed off his head.

The rest of the squad had easily finished off the rest of the clones. We came out completely victorious except for some scraped droids and another member of the squad named Kintar taking a grazing hit.

"Force," Kintar said shakily. "I never killed someone before."

"Neither have I." Isaac said with a nervous laugh.

"Come on guys we have to keep moving. You don't see Yusanis having a mental breakdown, follow his example and let's go." The NCO said coldly.

"Yes sir, sorry sir." Both Kintar and Isaac said, nervousness still in their voices.

"Contacts ahead." The NCO whispered over the comm. "They're distracted by the gunnery crew, everyone get ready to mow them down and throw your impact grenades. I'll kill the clone watching the hallway."

I looked down the hallway, the Republic troops had made it into the station, but just barely. The clones must have expected the earlier battle with our squad to go better for them as they had done almost nothing to prepare their rear besides stationing one clone behind some crates.

I waited for the NCO to give the order to attack. The sounds of explosions on cries of agony filled the halls. The outpost continued to shake from the bombardment. I continued waiting until I saw the sentry clone take a blaster bolt to the head. His head bent backwards from the impact and he fell.

"Now!" The NCO ordered.

We threw our grenades. The nice thing about impact grenades is their essentially impossible to stop unless you're either a crack shot and hit them mid air or a Jedi, and since they have a smaller blast radius we won't damage much of the equipment.

Our throws landed true. The six clones closet the impact were blown to pieces, their armor shattered by the blast. The five further away were luckier and managed to survive with only minor injuries, but now the clones were surrounded on both sides by well trained soldiers who flanked them on all sides. They would soon find themselves slaughtered by our superior training and firepower.

Once the dust settled the NCO gave us the next order, "Advance squad, time to finish them off!"

The skirmish was no competition. Not being able to find cover from both us and the gunnery squad, the clones were gunned down by our combined fire. Once the battle was over we regrouped the casualties were counted. Out of the twelve stationed at the gunnery station three had been killed and another four with varying degrees of injury (only one semi-critical), out of the total of twenty-one clones sent to attack nine had been killed the gunnery station, the other twelve killed by us (not including the squads from earlier.)

I was relieved to discover Yusanis was in the "minor injury" category. The gunnery commander had taken an unfortunate shot to the head making our NCO the highest ranking officer. The NCO went to inform the chief of our victory and ask for the next orders. While we awaited orders we had a chance for a breather. We moved the clone corpses out of the way and put blankets over our dead soldiers, while the few remaining droids took guard positions.

"Yusanis, how's the arm?" I asked concernedly.

"Eh, it's okay." He said rubbing his arm. "Clones gotta a lucky shot and grazed my arm. I should consider myself fortunate though," His voice went hoarse, " some of the other guys can't say the same."

Yusanis, Isaac, and I all looked down in sadness at the thought of men lossed.

Isaac spoke up, "It's funny isn't it, a mere forty or so minutes ago it was all so quiet. It,"

Isaac's thought was interrupted by the broadcast of our new order.

"Attention to all troops in the gunnery station." The voice of the chief bombed. "I am broadcasting this on a secure frequency to give you your orders. You are to hold the station to ensure the Republic doesn't capture this station for another fifteen minutes until our patrol fleet can arrive to destroy the Republic Vanguard, than you are to destroy the station and evacuate to the hanger. The outpost has been deemed too costly to hold and as such must be abandoned and destroyed, but we are to destroy as many as those Republic dogs as possible until then. Understood?!"

"Yes, ma'am"!

"You heard her take positions! We need to hold this the station!"

"We've got a long fifteen minutes ahead of us," Yusanis said grimly.

12 minutes later

"Cover me I'm reloading!" I shouted, voice full of panic.

I desperately tried to reload my rifle under a hail of blaster fire. The outpost was shaking more violently than ever as the Republic made one last final desperate attempt to destroy it before our reinforcements could arrive. Clones kept pouring into our position and were slowly and steadily killing off our numbers. More explosions rang in the distance and reports that many other sections of the base had hull breaches had been coming in through the comms.

I finished reloading and peeked out of cover the fire back at the clones, a blast hit nearly and centimeter away from my face. The sparks that flew from the blasted console combined with the heat from the shot burned my face. I managed to get my shot off despite the pain and killed the clone shooting at me. I immediately went back to cover and cupped my injured cheek.

" _Force dammit this hurts!"_ I continued to feel my injury, it hurt like hell, but it feels like I'll be fine for now at least.

I knew we couldn't hold the position anymore, we couldn't survive another 3 minutes. We had lost another five and the injuries kept piling it up. I watched as another soldier take a blaster to the face, while our NCO had an injured leg along with a broken nose from a clone trooper who tried to bash his face in. By this point, everyone had some varying degree of injured and it would take a miracle for any of us to make it out alive

"Blast them!" A mechanical voice from behind us yelled. I looked back to see a small army of battle droids of varying model came marching in to cover us. As I would find out later the fleet had arrived a few minutes early and due to Republic jammers command couldn't inform us.

" _So this is our miracle."_

Being the highest ranking officer left the NCO yelled our new orders, he was covered in bandages in due to all his injuries "The fleet has arrived, we are no longer needed to defend this station! Set the guns to fire the last of their ammunition and then activate the self-destruct and then we are to retreat!"

The gunnery crew went to work entering a code that would cause the guns to self-destruct once the last of their nearly depleted ammunition supply was depleted.

The squad ran through the hall that led the hanger. The damage the Republic fleet had done was obvious. Pipes had split, there were cracks throughout the hall and rubble was piling up. The floor was covered in a thick mist of fog from the bursted pipes.

We kept running until we reached a crossroads, as it turned out my miracle from earlier didn't go unnoticed and fate had some payback.

* _BOOM_

A massive impact hit the roof, causing the roof to collapse, an unfortunate soldier was crushed and we got split from the rest of the squad.

Three of us were stuck back here, besides the one who was crushed the rest of the squads were on the other side of the rubble, including Isaac. We put on breather masks due to the fact that the oxygen was pouring out of the hole in the ceiling.

"Shit!", I looked back to see that Yusanis had one of his legs covered in a piece of dura-steel.

"I, I, think it's broken," Yusanis yelled through tears.

I quickly put Yusanis' mask on for him and the soldier and I took the dura-steel off.

"I'll try to make a cast!" A soldier stuck behind with us yelled.

I nodded back, "I help you out."

"No," He said sternly, "I have medical training I'll do it, you go scout for an exit, we don't have much time left and we need to get out as fast as possible!"

While I didn't like the idea of leaving my best friend behind I understood the medics point. Fortunately, while the collapse blocked the direct route to the hanger, there was enough space to squeeze through to the power station. I continued down the hallway until I heard some voices.

"What in the name of the force is the fleet doing up there?"

I realized that the voice was not one of an Echani, but one of a clone. I quickly took cover behind a console at the edge of the room.

" _The reactor techs must have either retreated or been killed, I better take care of these guys before we can move Yusanis."_

"Oh shut up, you know that admirals just love taking their time when fighting a battle. Now stop complaining and keep watch. There are still Separatists here."

I took a quick look at the clones. First I noticed that the energy bridge that connected the power station and the hallways that lead to the hanger was deactivated. Next, I noticed there were four clones. The one who was just talking looked to be the officer, one was guarding the deactivated bridge, while the other two wandered around seemingly aimlessly.

I formulated a plan in my head.

" _The officer seems to be completely distracted by the main console that he's toying with. The clone guarding the bridge seems far enough away that the other clones may not notice his death for a few seconds if killed quietly. The clone who was just arguing with his commander seems to be easily distracted. As for the last one, I have no idea. He just seems to patrol and that's it._

I threw a cup that was left on a console. As expected the clone took the bait.

"Well, well, well, it looks like we have some action."

The officer kept looking at the console, "Spicer go deal with it, the base has been pretty much evacuated, it's probably just a droid." The officer said nonchalantly.

"With pleasure sir." The clone named "Spicer" said with an aura of confidence.

As he went to investigate the cup I decided to take care of the bridge clone. The other patrol clone was not watching him so I took out my throwing knife.

" _Come on training not fail me now."_

I threw the knife and it hit the clone on the unarmoured section of his arms around his neck. The throw hit true and the clone slumped over. Knowing the clones would hear him fall I threw my last knife at the officer. The knife hit him in the neck as and he slumped over on his console. I charged at the patrol clone and blasted him in the head. Unfortunately, he was more perceptive than I expected and he grazed my arm with a shot from his blaster before he died. That just left me with the last clone called "Spicer".

"Gotcha!" Spier yelled.

He blasted twice, but I expertly dodged his shots. I yanked his rifle out of his hand. Spicer reposed and punched me in the stomach.

"HA! Die separatist scum." Spicer sneered.

I kept myself together and promised myself I wouldn't be so careless this time. I let him attack. I kept dodging his punches and waited until he tired himself out.

"Why. Won't. You. Stand still?!" He said through labored breaths.

I knew this was my chance and slipped behind him while he punched. I swept my leg out mid doge to knock him down. He fell with a thud. I threw myself down on him. He let out a grunted as my weight fell on his stomach. At this point, he was to tired too throw me off despite my light weight. I grabbed his helmet and twisted his head to an unnatural angle. His neck snapped and his struggle stopped.

Sweat was pouring down my body. I felt small amounts of blood dripping from my injuries, but I couldn't stop now. I had to keep moving. Knowing the hanger wasn't too far from here and if the clone was guarding the bridge I deduced the way to the hanger must still be secure. I ran back to Yusanis and the medic trainee to tell them we can move forward.

By the time I got back Yusanis' makeshift caste had been finished and placed on his leg.

"Let's go, area is clear and we are running out of time."

Both the medic and Yusanis nodded back in agreement. Yusanis still had a pained expression on his face but understood the direness of the situation.

We ran to the reactor as fast as we could carry Yusanis. I went to turn on the bridge when I noticed something about the control.

Sparks were flying out of the control, the button was useless. "Guys, I think the reactor crew destroyed the bridge control as they retreated."

"Then we have to find another way." The medic replied.

I sighed, "There's no time. It looks like the other side of the bridge the control still works. I'll have to try to jump across."

The medic had a bewildered look on his face, "You can't be serious. There's no way you can jump across that!"

I looked back at him, "We are dead anyway if we can't make it across. There isn't enough time left to find another way." I replied coldly as I put down a crate to jump off of.

I used all my strength to jump across. I barely made it across and I grabbed the ledge. I used the last of my strength to pull myself up and hit the button turned the bridge on.

The medic looked shocked at my feet.

I waved him off, "We don't have time to question that, let's keep moving."

We made it to the hanger without any more resistance, this was fortunate because we got there just as the last ship began flying away.

"Wait! We have injured wait for us!" We yelled.

The pilot noticed and set the ship down to pick us up.

"Impeccable timing guys, another few seconds and we would have flown away!" The pilot yelled back at us.

Another guy in the transport looked as us. "Wow, you guys look like shit even for just being in a battle. I'm sure there is a story behind this."

I responded back through labored breaths, "You don't know the half of it."


	4. The Siege Begins

Author's note: Yay for 10k words. Thank you to anyone who has read this far! Reviews, follows, and favs are appreciated and I will take any criticism to heart. Thanks again for reading!

* * *

The transport ship touched down on a medical frigate stationed behind the rest of the fleet. As it turns out we were the last transport and the base evacuation was complete. The rest of the fleet began retreating back behind the asteroid field. Command had been preparing for a Republic attack for a while now and had an ingenious plan to convert many of the old mining stations in the asteroid belt into gunnery stations, some asteroids were even set to self-destruct or ram into the fleet should the fleet get too close to them. Fortunately, with the exception of a few small colonies or space stations, almost the entirety of this systems population was behind the asteroid belt, thus allowing us to significantly slow down and weaken the Republic before they could attack the population centers.

I climbed off the transport ship and into the hanger of the medical frigate. As soon as my feet touched the floor I could feel all my energy leave my body. The adrenaline rush that had been keeping me going up until this point immediately faded away.

" _Force. Everything hurts."_ I bent down in pain and exhaustion. I pulled myself back up and waddled to the nearest medical droid.

"Do you require medical attention, sir?" The droid said in its emotionless robotic voice.

"No." I responded sarcastically, "I'm just here to talk about the weather."

The droid looked confused, at least as confused as a droid can, "I'm sorry if I misunderstand but we are in space sir. There is no weather."

" _Stupid droid."_

By now I was leaning forward, my arm was across my stomach to try to keep myself up due to the pain.

"Yes, I need medical attention," I said seriously this time.

"Right this way sir." The droid said back.

The med room had a mirror on the wall. I looked at it and saw what the guy in the transport meant when he said I "looked like shit". My white hair had blotches of red thought my hair. My arms were covered in scratches and other injuries, my armor had tears all over it. I looked at my face where my face had been burned. Fortunately, it didn't look that bad and I figured he could be fully healed.

I took off my armor and lied down on my bed. I felt my exhaustion come up again and this time I passed out.

"Excuse me sir, you have a visitor."

Sometime later

I woke up in a daze. I looked up to see the medical droid and what looked to be an officer staring down at me. All I remember is going to the med bay for a check up and falling unconscious.

The officer was clearly an Echani judging by his white hair and silver eyes.

"You are Kinsaris Dominia?"

I stood up and saluted the officer, "Yes sir."

The officer continued, "I'm sorry to inform you this, but your previous NCO Victor Azanov was killed during his retreat to the hangar by a clone ambush. He fought valiantly to save his squad. Command has reviewed your record and since you were squad corporal command has decided to promote you to the new NCO. We have also added two more soldiers to your squad, one of which will be the new corporal."

This hit me hard. All this information in such a short time was too much for my brain to handle properly. I simply saluted back and went back into bed. The medical droid informed me that I would still need the rest of the trip to recover. I looked over the data pad the officer handed me. The orders stated that I was being reassigned to the planet Custos. I thought of my knowledge of the system. Custos moderately populated habitable, continental planet that is the fourth planet from the systems sun, it also has a single lightly populated moon. Next to it is the only other large population system being the planet Arce along with its moons. Arce is considerably bigger than Custos being the system's capital.

I felt sad that Victor died. I never got to know him all that personally, but he was a good and respectable soldier and to die when he was so close to escaping is disheartening.

I sighed, " _At least he went down fighting."_

I looked up to a nearby medical droid.

"Droid," I asked, "How long have I been on this ship and how long until the ship reaches our destination?"

"We have been onboard for two hours now. We have separate orders to drop off medical supplies on some of our other outposts which has slowed us down. We are almost finished now and should be arriving in a half an hour."

"And my injuries?"

Fortunately, your injuries were easily repairable and you are already able to leave the med bay. We had already begun the healing process while you slept. Unfortunately, you will have a small burn scar on your check for a few weeks to a month."

I nodded back at the medical droid who left after it was finished with its diagnosis.

I got dressed and wandered out of the medical room, I wasn't sure where I was going but I needed somewhere more quiet to think.

I looked out of a view port, past the thousands of asteroids that passed by.

" _Being in charge of a squad. Didn't expect that, at least not this soon. And now the war will really start. The outpost was just the beginning. The planets are next and the real fighting will start then."_

I began reading over the data pad the officer gave me. According to the data pad, I was to be stationed at a small city on the planet Custos. I looked over the transfer list. The first transfer was actually a local of the planet named Victor Reynolds second was a name I recognized. It was the son of an associate of my father. The transfers name being Orson Reson. My father and Orson's father often met especially during the Separatist Crisis. Both our families being nobles from the same my father and his father knew each other well. Combined with the fact that both our fathers were big supporters of the Separatist alliance and had long since been planning the upcoming war our fathers and by extension us had spent a lot of time together. Lastly, it said the commander of the planet I am to be stationed on is commanded by Colonel Monty.

Half an hour later

The ship landed on a space port in the city we were to be stationed in. I had previously ordered my squad to be assembled. "My squad" it's going to take awhile to get used to that.

"So 'sir', what is our orders?" Isaac said with an extra emphasis on sir.

"We are to report to the local military base. Command said that the local military will take us there in a few minutes."

A few military speeders descended outside the space port. We entered and took off to the military base.

It was a rather silent ride, many of us were still shaken from the previous battle and the fear of the Republic advance.

We landed at the base. Soldiers and droids were running around the place to prepare for the advancing Republic fleet. I felt fortunate that my family lives in the capital, those who live on the outskirts like these people will almost certainly have their homes attacked.

My squad and I walked towards the command building. We entered and came face to face with the commander of the City defense. He was a man by the name of Major Nicea. Like most of the people in the outer colonies, he was an Echani. The human minority being largely focused in the inner system. Next to him were another two echani soldiers standing side by side. One I recognized as Ivan Reson.

The Major got up from his desk and looked me straight in the eyes.

"Welcome Lorem squad to my base. As loyal soldiers of our great nation, you will follow my orders while you are under my command. Understood?"

"Yes, sir!" We said while saluting the major.

"Good." He nodded "You are to act as a support squad, as I'm sure you all know by now the Republic will be coming for us soon and the defenses set up in the asteroid belt will not be enough to stop them and they will attack. This city houses a major planetary military base. The Republic will attack this location first. You will assist in building the defense, however, once the attack comes you will report the defense sector 5." The major pointed to a town square by the city capitol building. "This is a highly important sector and you are to defend it with all your might. Understood?"

"Yes, sir!" We shouted at once.

"Good." He smiled. " Now then the two soldiers standing behind me are your new squad mates. They will serve well and faithfully. Now get some rest, you start tomorrow. You are dismissed."

We filled out of the office. I stopped the squad once we exited the building, I pushed by nerves back and addressed "my" squad.

"Well, squad you heard the Major, get rested up today because tomorrow we have a long day ahead. The Republic could be arriving any day now and we need to be ready."

My squad nodded back in understanding and saluted before dispersing to do whatever they wanted to do in their off time.

Ivan Reson walked up to me with a smile. Despite him being a year younger we had known each other for an extremely long time do to our father's friendship.

"Ivan." I raised my eyebrow. "Your father let you join?"

"Yup." he said in a cheery voice, "My father finally budged a few days ago. He said that taking my opportunity to serve when our nation needs it most would be shameful. Well anyway, this base needed some extra recruits so they transferred me here." His face changed to that of concern, "Where's Yusanis?"

Yusanis, Ivan, and I all went to the same military academy so we all knew each other. I sighed, "He got his leg broken while we were leaving the outpost. Doc said he'd be out for a while."

"Any word from the home system? The outpost had a limit on how many messages we could send, I've been out of the loop."

He shrugged back, "Nothing much, I had already left when the Republic invasion started. Besides excitement for the return of the expedition legion nothing interesting has been going on."

I sighed, "Well thanks anyway. Now that I think about it the legion came back at the perfect time, we need them more than ever."

"Well, I guess it's the 'will of the force' as those Jedi put it." Reason replied sarcastically.

We both laughed at the irony at that before going in for the night.

The housing in this base wasn't quite so spacious as the outpost, but because of the fact that it is still a bit undermanned, the squad had a block almost to ourselves. I was about to fall asleep when I realized something.

" _Shit my mother is going to throw a fit if I don't write to her after this."_

I took out my personal data pad and began writing a message explaining the events of today and yesterday. About my first experience in actual combat, the battle itself, and my promotion.

I closed my data pad and fell asleep.

 **The next day**

We took a transport to our station. The city is a rather small city of a half a million people. The city is almost completely surrounded by a river with some of the newer districts and suburbs across the river, the river also runs through parts of the city with the military base sitting on a plateau. built next to the military base. Reynolds explained that he lives not too far away and visited this city fairly often. Apparently, before the base was set up it was just a moderately sized town and began rapidly expanding after the base was set up. Apparently, the base was established about 60 years ago in order to secure the area to keep pirates away. The transport dropped off at the capitol building. The capitol building is surrounded by metal walls that are about 10 feet tall, however, it is surrounded by buildings much taller which greatly limits the effectiveness of the wall. Inside was a small court yard with decorative marble pillars. A stock pile was set up and is filled with equipment and defense works such a sandbags, pre-fab cover, and stationary machine guns.

I turned back to face my squad, "Time to get to work guys, we're going to teach these Republic dogs a lesson."

 **3 days later.**

We stood ready at high emergency, reports came flooding in that the Republic had broken through the asteroid field. Estimates are that there are dozens of Republic ships coming towards the planet. We have been sitting in our position for nearly a half an hour. We are determined to hold the capitol building of the city.

And then the attack started.

Turbo lasers from the surface began firing in the sky. The fleet in the region is too small to take the Republic for long, but the fleet can do a lot of damage before being forced to retreat.

We continue holding for another 10 or so minutes. The same fear of anticipation from the first battle was present here. Fortunately, most of the civilian population had evacuated or are hiding in safe rooms. The few that remain are mostly militia. I look around me at the combination of droids and organics soldier standing around me, I realize that after this very few of us may be left. I take a deep breath and push the thought away and put my focus back in the upcoming battle.

Our comms came on, "Reports coming in of Republic elite troopers coming down for a forward assault!"

I watch as drop pods and small transport ships fly down from the sky. We cheer as a few get shot down, but there are too many and too fast to destroy them all.

A few drop pods land near by.

"Jet troopers!"

Out of nowhere several clone troopers come flying to our position on jet packs. Several droidekas acting as machine gun and snipers tried desperately to shot them down with only little success. The rest of us on the ground, inside the capitol, and on the walls also took aim, but the agility of the jump troopers made them very hard to hit. I noticed as one trooper took cover in an apartment building. He began taking aim at something so I began blasting his position. I wasn't able to hit him but I did prevent him from taking his shot. A super battle droid walked up and took this as an opportunity to fire its rocket, I wasn't able to see the success of the shot as some other clones began firing at me. I dived to cover just in time as several blaster bolts blew my previous position to shreds. While getting back up I watched in horror as another defender got cut down by one of the Republic troopers. In rage, I took aim and fire at where the shots originated from with little effect.

A machine gunner on the third-floor balcony of the capital began firing down on the clones, successfully cutting down the clone I was firing at while seemingly injuring another clone. This forced the clones who were previously shooting at me moved position allowing me to get up again.

The battle continues, I shout orders to my squad to increase our effectiveness and to try to keep everyone alive. After a few minutes, the clones begin retreating. All in all the casualties on both sides were rather light which makes me wonder what the point of that attack was.

I continued pondering until I was interrupted by the comms. "Reports coming in that clone commandos have destroyed several anti air guns clearing up air space for larger Republic transports. Several Republic transport and fighters are coming down, they're landing large amounts of clone troopers in an attempt to capture the city! Hold your positions at all costs unless ordered otherwise, this is a planetary invasion and we cannot afford to lose territory!"

The commander of our position shouted our orders, "Everyone repair the defenses! We need to prepare for the upcoming assault!"

 **25 minutes later.**

Blaster bolts and explosions filled the city. Republic transports had been landing for nearly 20 minutes straight landing squad after squad of clone troopers, our only saving grace being that the assault frigates haven't been able to break through our blockade in space. Unfortunately, the real reason behind the commando assault had become clear as reports came in that the attacks had been focused on anti-air positions, especially in the suburbs. The Republic used the clearing to land their transports allowing them to unload legions of clone troopers. So far our position has seen virtually no combat besides the firing of our own AA guns however, many other positions were engaged in fierce combat as the Republic moved ever forward.

I giant blast went off near by. The comms blazed on again, "The Republic is making a beeline towards your position! Prepare to push them back!"

"Squad, form up!" I yelled.

We gathered at the arch that served as the entrance, unfortunately, the commandos had already blown off the gate meaning that the Republic will have a clear target to take. Several canisters shot forward from the dust. They landed in the no man's land between our line and where the Republic should be coming from. Each canister went off with a pop and began spitting out smoke. It wasn't long until the entire area between us and the Republic was filled with smoke. I knew what this meant. The Republic would be advancing through this as cover. The smoke is specially designed to prevent inferred as well. I waited in anticipation. I look around me. There is another squad besides mine guarding the entrance, along with several more squads manning the walls and covering other positions.

 _*BLAST_

A blue blaster bolt rips through the air and nearly hits a man guarding a barricade. Several more white armored figures came charging through the smoke guns blazing.

"Pick your targets! We can't let them overrun us!" I ordered.

The fighting continued. I ducked behind a blasted concrete wall as clones continued advancing through the smoke. I couldn't tell how many lives had been lost through all the combat, I could only guess that by the end of this the bodies would outway the living.

"I'm hit!" Kintar yelled over the comms.

"Give Kintar covering fire!" I ordered through the comm.

"Kintar, how bad are you injured?"

There was a bit of a delay before he responded. "I'm not sure, but I can't move sir."

I digested this information before making my decision.

"Squad keep up the covering fire, Resold, help me get him out of there."

"On it sir!"

I dogged the blaster bolts raining down on me. By now the front line was collapsing and most of the troops and the few remaining droids had retreated to a defensive line further back.

I finally made it where Kintar had fallen. He is grabbing his leg in extreme pain, he cried in agony due to the extreme pain. Looking at his leg, it is obvious he had taken a blaster to the leg, fortunately, do to the extreme heat of the blaster no blood was coming out otherwise this would have been a lot worse. I looked over to Resold, we both knew it would be extremely difficult to get Kintar to safety and we understood the risk we were taking.

"Squad fire at the clone's position, don't bother trying to hit anything just give us cover," I whispered in the comm.

"Roger that," Reynolds responded.

The green blaster bolts from our squad combined with the red of the droids flew over my head, someone threw a smoke grenade to try to help, unfortunately, we couldn't throw more or the Republic would use it as cover against us. I couldn't see how effective our countermeasures were but it's now or never. Renold and I grabbed Kintar from one arm each. We couldn't risk carrying him as we would get blasted. We started dragging Kintar through the maze of broken down pillars and pre-fab cover.

"Watch out sir! A few are getting close to you!"

We kept dragging Kintar through the rubble, I pulled out my blaster out and began blasting indiscriminately at the cloned hoping desperately to at least slow them down.

"Come on guys into the capitol building!"

I looked up to see we reached the stairs. We quickly climbed up the stairs dragging Kintar with us. I watched as the last troops and a few droids ran into the building, once the last made it in the great doors of the capital building sealed, and here we are, under siege and running out of supplies.

 **5 minutes later.**

We dropped Kintar off at the ramshackle set up we call a med bay. As much as I felt that his injury was my responsibility, me being in charge of the squad, I knew that I had to keep going and to stay focused on the battle.

The Republic had been continuously bashing their heads against the building ever since we retreated into here. The casualties were rapidly mounting on both sides and the situation looked extremely dire for us.

I heard my comm beep on "Sargent, have your squad report to the third floor."

"Yes, sir." I sighed on turned the comm off."

I changed the comm channel to that of my squad, "Squad meet up at the main stairs to the third floor, we have new orders."

We began climbing the stairs to the third floor, the building shook as explosions hit it from all sides. It's fortunate that the Republic hasn't been able to move in their heavy artillery yet otherwise our situation would be much worse, assuming that's even possible at this point, we've been under constant assault since we fell back in here. Eventually whether through attrition or just plain might of numbers we will be overrun and destroyed if nothing happens.

The third floor was full of activity, soldiers and droids ran around frantically, seemingly without purpose. The few troops that weren't running around were stationed at windows with blasters tight in hand.

I stopped a running officer to ask what we are supposed to do.

"Uh, ma'am are we were called up here, where are we supposed to report too?"

The officer had a frantic look on her face and in all honesty, I don't think she really noticed me, "Oh right, just go man some windows. A large Republic assault is coming and we need everyone at a station." And with that she ran off into another section of the floor.

" _Well, an order is an order."_

"Ok squad you heard her."

We moved to a small section of windows that were unmanned.

"Where the hell is our air force?" The soldier next to me mumbled.

I hadn't even been thinking of that. Where is our air support?

"Republic assault incoming!"

I pulled out my rifle and looked out the window. I watch as a horde of clone troopers advanced on our position, so I took aim and fired.

The soldiers and droids all around me fired at the horde. Green and red blaster bolts rained down on the clones charging forms.

A dozen clones fell while the rest hid behind what ever cover they could find. We continued to blast down at the clones, the clones tried blasting us back but our superior cover and height made their volley ineffective.

Several rockets shot out from the clone trooper lines. They pounded against the buildings and seemed to be focused around the door. The strong metal of the building held up but the building could only take so many hits like that.

The battle continued as it began. Us blasting down at the clones trying to prevent them from breaching the building and the clones trying to suppress us long enough to reach the door.

"We're being overrun!"

* _BOOM_

"They've breached the door!" A panicked voice yelled.

" _So this is how it ends."_ I thought grimly, " _I'm going to die in this building, I refuse to let myself be captured by these barbarians."_

I looked out the evening sky, fires lit up the city in a bloody red light. The normal sounds of a city taken away by the sounds of combat and destruction.

" _The Republic are going to pay for this. I'll take as many as I can down with me."_

The sounds of jets interrupted my thoughts.

" _There's no way, it can be…"_

Hundreds of small explosions went off throughout the Republic forces. The explosions lit up the sky in brilliant red and yellow fire. Jets and fighters flew overhead and dropped their cargo of bombs and lasers down on the Republic on in ever increasing numbers. The entire Republic line began to collapse, they simply didn't have enough anti air support nor counter fighters to fight off our onslaught.

"They're falling back!"

The wave of white clone amor receded like the sea. A few began blasting indiscriminately as the clones ran but for the most part people were celebrating that they were still alive.

I fired my last few shots until my magazine ran out of charge. I looked around me to confirm my squad was still alive. I than dropped to me knees, being this close to death twice in a week is a howling experience. I knew this wasn't the end though. All this meant is that there is a great campaign ahead, but that worry is for later.

The commander of the station went on the speakers.

"The Republic dogs are retreating! Let's kick them out of our city and make sure they regret the day they stepped foot on our soil! It's time to chase those dogs down!"

A triumphant roar rang out and now it was our turn to take the fight to them.


	5. A Preemptive Attack

I entered the hangar bay in a daze. This is the day. This is the day we I would be entering the war more than just sitting on a starship. Despite the mission being in theory low danger, a simple infiltration as pro-Republic forces distracted the airfield's guards, I still felt extremely anxious at the thought of it.

"Nervous?" I jumped a little at the sound of my master's voice.

I looked down and shuffled my feet, "I don't know, I never led anything like this, Force I never led a real combat mission at all. And the fact that this mission is so important."

My master put a soothing hand on my shoulder and let out a warm-hearted laugh, "You'll do fine, you wouldn't be assigned this mission if I didn't have faith in you."

A clone with red and blue armor walked up, I immediately recognized him as Captain Nox, "Ma'ams." Nox saluted, "I'm sorry to interrupt, but the squads are ready for the assault on the airfields."

My master nodded in approval, "Very good Captain, you are dismissed."

Nox saluted and left.

My master looked back at me, "Just remember, you just have to lead your squad to the airfield and support them on the way. Once you are there your squad will use the specially made explosives, plant them and escape the airfield. The plan is already in place, you have nothing to worry about and Nox will be able to assist in command. I will be nearby at the other airfield, we will meet at the meeting point after the mission is complete. I have nothing but utmost confidence in you my young padawan." With that Master Leandra gave a warm smile and left to board her stealth ship.

I took several deep breaths to calm myself down and approached my squad.

I approached my second in command, a clone sergeant named Nox.

"Sargent, the ships are ready, it's time to begin the mission,"

"Yes, ma'am." Nox saluted and then proceeded to board the ship with the squad.

I walked aboard the ship behind my squad. The ship, being a stealth prototype was rather small and only has enough room for the 4 members of my squad plus the two pilots. I watched as the last of my squad entered the ship, and a few minutes later we took off. I looked around the ship and my squad, which consisted of Sargent Nox, corporal Dire, along with an additional four privates. Being a special operations squad these clones are elite and prepared for whatever comes for us. Using the ships highly advanced stealth capabilities we were able to sneak past any defenses both in orbit and on the ground and, as such, we made it onto the planet without incident...

We quickly exited the ship and began moving towards the airfield.

Sargent Nox's comm lit up, "Remember squad we have one mission and one mission only, and that is to disable the aircraft stored at this airfield by any means necessary. Keep as quiet and stay hidden, these Echani are highly trained and there's going to be a lot of them. Anything to add ma'am?"

" _Come on I can do this."_ I took a deep breath and turned on my comm, "Remember we don't know how reliable our contact is, we can't be sure of anything."

"Of course ma'am." Replied the squad simultaneously.

I looked around at the rolling hills, green grass, and bushes. I listed to the chirps of the local animals as the cool night air caressed my face. I felt a tinge of sadness at the thought that this peaceful world would be ravaged by the upcoming war.

I sighed, " _If they could have just stayed in the Republic none of this would be happening."_

"Ma'am, we should be reaching the outskirts of the air base within a few minutes." whispered Nox over the comm."

"Understood." I responded.

After another few minutes of stealthily crawling through the grassy, hilly landscape we finally had the airfield in sight. The airfield was a large complex in the center of a large, grassy, valley. As expected it was guarded quite well, search towers with powerful spotlights searched the grass for intruders, a large fence surrounded the entire field, a small minefield surrounded the base, and an untold amount of guards could possibly be in the large complex. However, despite all this, the defenses wasn't what it could be. The fence was seemingly in the process of being upgraded and many sections were simply reinforced chain link with some barbed wire, the wall also appeared to be undermanned and droids made up a large amount of the sentries, our mine detectors we setup detected that the minefield was actually rather small, and finally the airfield seemed to be a converted civilian airport rather than a proper military one, leaving the possibility of many places to hide once inside. Clearly, they were not finished preparing for the war.

Now that we had the airfield in sight, it was time for the first part of the plan. Our pro-Republic allies on the planet had prepared a diversionary plan.

The low whistle of a mortar flying through the air could be faintly heard soaring through the night sky. A mere second later the whistle was replaced by a massive boom. Suddenly bright explosions lit up the night sky as fiery death rained down on the air base, not long after the base began its counter volley.

"Squad, the diversion has begun. Let's begin our part. Once the sentries on the wall move away we begin our assault." I spoke through the comms.

Unfortunately, the pro-Republic forces on the planet aren't equipped enough to deal with the airfields themselves, but they still can cause enough havoc for us to do our part.

"Ma'am, the sentries on our side are beginning to pull out." Spoke a private with binoculars.

I nodded, "Then it's our time to attack."

We made our way through the field, using our sensors to detect the mines underneath. Fortunately, the under-equipped airfield didn't have too many mines and the ones they did have were out of date. The sentries had spotlights trained on the field, fortunately, due to the lack of a proper amount of guards and our black uniforms with an anti-thermal coating we made it across the field without incident and hugged the fence. Being right outside the base amplified the already ear-piercingly loud sound of battle that was occurring. Corporal Dire, being the squad's designated engineer, was responsible was getting us through the fence. Due to the fence being little more than chain link Corporal Dire was easily able to get through the fence without attracting any unwanted attention.

The interior of the airfield offered us more cover then the field outside due the boxes and other items left on the ground of the field, combined with the fact that there were no soldiers with searchlights searching the field made it a lot easier to avoid detection. We slowly began crawling to the large building at the end of the airfield, we had to infiltrate that building as the aircraft garage was located inside. Fortunately, most of the base garrison was still busy trying to route our allied forces, once the distraction ended, however, we would be in a lot more trouble. Unfortunately now came of the hard part. We would have to infiltrate the main buildings without being spotted and once inside we almost certainly have to avoid patrols and security cameras.

"Okay squad, we have reached the base. We might run into trouble so in that happens put on your silencers so we don't alert the entire base." ordered Nox.

I looked down at my Lightsaber nervously, sweating lightly at the thought of having to use it.

Corporal Dire cut a hole through the wall of the airport and using the new entrance, we entered. In order to minimize our footprint, he resealed the hole to the best of his ability. Looking inside the airport confirmed that this is a converted civilian airport, rather than one built solely for military purposes. The airport had many creviouses and rooms, many of which were covered in a thin metal change. Before the war these must have been shops and other recreational facilities.

"Damn those traitors shelling our military while a Republic invasion fleet is here!" Shouted an unknown voice.

"Roger, roger." Responded the familiar voice of a B1 Battle droid.

"Stupid droid." The voice responded back, "Damn command for understaffing us so much we have to use these droids, look just go patrol that hallway while I search this one."

"Roger, roger."

What sounded like several pairs of droid's feet began marching down the hallway, hiding behind an outstretching of the wall we waited for the droids to walk by. We ambushed the two patrol droids, Sargent Nox ripped the head off one droid while another clone stuck a vibroknife through the head of the other. The fight ended as soon as it started.

"Alright squad hide the bodies and keep moving, and be wary of security cameras and patrols." Nox told the squad.

The entire building shook under the blasts of the mortar fire, pieces of rubble fell around us as the sounds of the combat was all around us.

"Why in the name of the force are they still shelling? They were supposed to pull back by now." Asked a clone.

"Maybe our 'allies' are not as reliable as we thought." another clone mumbled under his breath.

"It doesn't matter, the mission carriers on either way. Now everyone cut the chatter and go follow this hallway" Nox commanded.

We continued crawling through the hallway. The artillery must have hit a generator as the lights were off, only the dim glow of red emergency lights were active to light the hallway. The hallway eventually lead to a large room of what once must have been the airports terminal. Like the rest of the building it was dark but still had enough lighting to see clearly. Suddenly I sensed something.

"Stop. Take cover." I motioned to the rest of the squad.

We moved into a room to the side. The room appeared to be a buffet that served the terminal. We crouched behind the buffet counter to ensure they wouldn't see us.

Right after I said that three Echani guards walked into the terminal, two of them wielding vibroblades and the other carrying a blaster carbine.

"Those damn traitors think can take this airbase, we'll crush them!" Shouted a guard with a vibroblade.

"Be quiet, we're supposed to be patrolling not complaining." Replied the guard with the carbine.

"Fine, let's just get this patrol done with."

They turned to our direction and began walking our way.

" _Force dammit there's no way they won't see us."_

Thinking fast I used the force to make a distraction. I force pushed a janitor cart that was abandoned in the terminal into another hallway, making sure to have it fall over once it was far enough away.

"What was that?" One of the guards asked.

"I don't know but let's check it out."

After waiting for them to move far enough away we took our chance.

"Let's not waste this opportunity, move troopers." Nox ordered.

We quietly ran behind the buffet in the terminal while the guards were distracted. We expertly avoided the security cameras as well as the attention of the guards until we reached another hallway which would lead to the garage. We ran down a hall and turned the corner. By now we were getting close to the air force garage, once we got there we could destroy the enemy aircraft and evac. We only have to make it a bit further…

By dreams of an easy success was quickly crushed by the sounds of combat inside the airbase. It sounded like there was blaster fire from inside the building, screams of different combatants and droids could be heard throughout the building. The only explanation would be that the rebels are launching their own assault, despite the fact we specifically told them not too as it would keep alert too high and could risk compromising our stealth mission.

"Damn those rebels, they're going to screw up the entire mission." A clone commented.

"We have to keep moving, be on alert, we can't become stuck in the middle of a battle." Nox said grimly.

We kept moving toward the air garage and eventually came across a large cafeteria-like room.

"Ok squad stick together, we will use the tables as cover to cross the room wi,"

Nox was cut off by a patrol firing at us from behind. We scrambled out of the way into the cafeteria and took cover behind some tables. Unfortunately, another large patrol had been waiting for us inside and fired.

"It's a trap! They knew we were here! How!?" Screamed Nox.

"Surrender Republic scum! We captured your rebel friends and they told us everything! We know damn well about your mission to destroy our air force!" A separatist taunted over the intercoms.

"NEVER!" Nox shouted as he unleashed a hail of blaster fire.

I forced pushed the separatists behind us while the rest of the squad opened fire. We scrambled behind a table by the wall and pushed it over for cover. Fortunately for us, the table was made out of some sort of resistant metal, on the flip side while we were able to make a wall of cover we were still surrounded. It was hard to see how many we are up against because they keep hiding in cover, combined with the fact that we were being suppressed, but we must have at least a dozen organic troops against us along with several droids.

"We can't fight them all, who knows how many reinforcements they have? We need to break out and reach the hanger bay." I said.

"I agree ma'am. Squad, we are getting out of here. Dire, cut a hole in the floor to get us out. The floor plan says there is a hallway under us. The rest of you keep Baxter covered."

The battle raged, we had killed a few enemies, mostly droids, but we were getting whittled down as well. Two clone privates were dead and Corporal Dire had taken an injury. Fortunately, this was an elite squad otherwise we would have certainly been overrun by now and Dire's injury was only a minor one.

"Dire you better hurry the fuck up!"

Dire looked up, "It's almost done… Wait. Grenade!"

I looked up to see a small flying ball in the air, and like so many times today force pushed the grenade back at whoever was stupid enough to throw it.

I was full of adrenaline desperately trying to deflect blasters and grenades, not even seeing any of the damage I was doing. My world was in slow motion, taking note of everything happening at once, what was only a minute or two in real life felt like hours as I took in the scenes of battle with every detail.

"We're through! Let's get out of here!"

I snapped out of my adrenaline rush and jumped down the newly made hole along with the rest of the remaining squad.

"Keep moving, we're almost there!"

Several separatist droids turned the hallway and blasted a clone private before we could react.

"Scotts!" Dire yelled as he mowed down the droids.

"Dire! We have to keep moving!" Nox yelled

After some more running, we reached the hanger. The entrance to the hanger lied in a large room with a blast door on the other side. Unfortunately, the door was guarded by 5 echanis and 8 droids.

"Take cover!"

We all jumped out of the way of the hail of blaster fire the defenders unleashed. We dived behind some durasteel boxes as blaster bolts reigned around us.

"We don't have time for this. Enemy reinforcements will be here in no time." Nox said impatiently.

I worked up the courage to be the commander I should be, "We have to use some of the explosives to blast them out of cover. Otherwise, we have no chance of completing the mission."

"You're right General. This is our only option left." Nox replied as he primed one of the bombs. The bombs we brought for this mission are extremely powerful, meant to deal large amounts of damage while being small enough to carry. Perfect for our mission and perfect for blasting away entrenched enemies.

The bomb flew through the air and into the enemy position. Where there was once a blast door now there is a brilliant explosion. Bodies of the opposing droids and soldiers flew throughout the room in a gory mess that almost made me vomit. At least the plan worked and the blast door was now nothing more than a gaping hole.

"Move troopers!" Nox yelled

We found ourselves on the top of a several meter high platform overlooking the hangerbay with two ramps decedening into the part of the hanger where the jets were stored. Seeing the hanger our intel proved to be more than correct. Rows and rows of in atmosphere jets lined the hanger, several vulture droids were also present. Inside the hangar bay were even more Separatists. Our allies treachery had given the enemy too much time to prepare, though at least they didn't have enough time to evacuate the hanger bay of jets. The clones desperately tried to do as much damage before being overwhelmed, but what we could do was limited.

"Watch out General!"

Using the force I quickly pushed myself out of the way of an incoming vibroblade.

I turned to face my attacker. He shared the common enchani features of white hair, pale skin, and silver eyes. He wore the standard white, lightweight armor and is armed with a single bladed vibrosword.

He attacked again, this time, however, I was ready. I desperately paired his blade as continued his attack. I tried to take the initiative and riposte, but he was able to parry it and even gave me a minor cut in recompense. My nerves grew and grew. While I had fought many enemies today I never fought them this close up and alone. The duel continued as the battle raged around us. Just as he began to get the upper hand I willed myself to Force push him. The Force push was powerful enough to knock him over and without thinking I stabbed my lightsaber right through him. I watched as the life left his body and I felt in the force as his spirit left. While I'm sure I've indirectly killed people today I never saw it so up close or personally. I felt sick and shocked at the sight of it, the sounds of battle drowned out my disbelief.

"General! We have to get out of here!".

I snapped out of my shock to see that the battle had changed a lot. Corpses, both friend and foe, littered the battlefield and only Nox was left. The clones must have thrown what was left of their explosives as several jets were in pieces and blast craters were scattered throughout the hanger. Unfortunately, many of the jets were still operational, although nearly everything looked damaged. At the very least the damage should slow down their ability to respond, along with decreasing their total air power.

I ran to Nox who had found a hole in the hanger made by one of the bombs to escape from. We ran across the airbase in a desperate dash for escape. The fence that had once surrounded the airbase was largely flattened by the rebel bombardment allowing an option for a quick escape. Despite the enemy blaster fire, all was going well until one of the separatists got a lucky shot.

"Force dammit!" Nox yelled as he hit the ground, a high powered blaster bolt having hit his leg.

I turned to help him up.

"No General." Nox raised a pained hand, "I'm not going to be able to make it, you have to leave me. I was bred to serve the Republic and I am proud to die for it."

Through painted tears, I turned my back and left Nox. Using the force I greatly increased my speed and escaped the air base. I wasn't pursued for long, for whatever reason (possibly a fear of Republic forces in the hills) the Separatist forces gave up the chase. At long last, I reached the extraction zone. I limped up to the ship that would take me off this force forsaken planet and collapsed as what was left of my adrenaline rush left me. And with that my world went dark.


	6. Into the Darkness

"CHARGE! KILL THE TYRANTS!"

The entire garrison lit up in war cries as we slammed into the disorganized Republic soldiers still in the capitol.

The panicked and retreating Republic forces were completely unprepared for dozens of vibroblade armed warriors trained in the echani melee arts. I quickly sliced down two clones. A third attempted to block with his blaster but I anticipated this and changed my attack direction and sliced his legs from right down under him. I quickly took cover and began looking for my next target. Despite the exhaustion from hours of fighting the adrenaline rush flowing through me, along with the desire for revenge against the Republic gave me all the energy I needed.

After another minute of blasting and cutting, we pushed back the remainder of the clones out of the capitol building, despite our initial success clones still controlled the courtyard and had dug in. Several of the pursuing Echani soldiers had charged too far from the building and were killed by the clones waiting for them.

"Squad! Stick to cover, the clones still hold a strong position!"

"Not for long!" Another Echani came up with a rifle grenade and launched it at a nearby clone position. It landed perfectly behind their cover and killed the three clones instantly.

The fighting was brutal but slowly and surely we pushed them back. Many of the remaining clones began joining their retreating comrades as the battle rapidly turned against them. Noticing an opportunity I charged a nearby clone position consisting of two clones hiding behind some debris. As they were busy focusing on another one of our units they didn't see me until I was right on top of them.

Wasting no time I cut both the clones down without a second thought. I quickly took cover again as my squad caught up with me.

I looked around at the situation. By now we had taken back half the courtyard, several squads were also attempting to push forward but the entrenched Republic forces were extremely difficult to push back.

Despite the grueling and bloody combat we continuously pushed forward into the gauntlet and at last, reached the gate at the end of the courtyard. We were almost immediately suppressed by heavy machine gun fire from a shelled out apartment building overlooking the gate. Lucky a pair of B2 battle droids with rocket launcher attachments managed to fire at the position.

A large explosion erupted as the rockets slammed into the clone's position. Sandbags and rubble were blown across the street. But all that mattered to us was that the Force Damned Machine Gun was obliterated in the blast.

While most of the clones had already begun retreating many had stayed behind to cover their retreating comrades. The clones who had stayed behind took cover in the ruined landscape, the rubble, craters, and blasted out cars as cover.

" _These Republic bastards are going to pay for the destruction they caused."_

Suddenly, upon viewing the ruined city Reynolds stood up in rage.

He began randomly blasting as he yelled, "Force damn you republic dogs for destroying my planet!"

"Reynolds what in the name of the force are you doing!?" I yelled while pulled him down back into cover.

I yelled at Reynolds, enraged at his sporadic behavior, "Reynolds get a hold of yourself before you get yourself killed!"

Reynolds took a couple of deep breaths before looking down ashamed, "I'm sorry sir, I don't know what came over me."

Before I could respond again a courier ran up to our position.

"Orders from command! Your squad is ordered to pull back from this position and use an underground maintenance tunnel to flank the enemy. Command has only recently discovered this passage so be aware of possible danger while in the tunnel."

"Roger that." My squad and I followed the courier back to the capitol building and to the entrance to the tunnel. We descended into the basement of the capitol building. One of the guards in the basement unlocked the door to the maintenance tunnel that would allow us to flank the enemy.

The tunnel was a large metal, circular tunnel covered in wires and tubes on the walls. At least the lighting of the tunnel remained active so we wouldn't be blind down there. We entered the tunnel. Even this deep underground the tunnel shook from the bombardments above. The booming of artillery and the chaos of the fighting could still be heard as we walked through the tunnel.

"Sir, I think hear something, it sounds like some kind of whimpering," Isaac said in a quiet voice.

Reson pointed towards a metal utility door, "I think it's coming from there."

"Isaac, Reynolds, take cover on each side of the door while I open it. Reson, you cover me from behind.

I pulled the lever that opened the door. What was behind the door surprised me. Several families of civilians, mostly women, children, and some older men, were in a huddled mass, cowering at the sight us.

An old man with a rifle walked up, "Please we are but civilians, please leave us in peace."

I set down my blaster in an attempt to calm them, "Don't worry, we're with the military. We'll keep you safe."

The man looked puzzled, "Military? You mean you're not with the collaborators?"

"Collaborators?" I responded confused.

The man nodded. "Yes, there is a small group of Republic collaborators are also down here. We aren't sure what they are doing but they threatened us earlier to stay out of their way. We thought they were back to silence us."

"Force dammit!" I thought angrily, "Who knows how many rebels are down here and who knows how much damage they've been doing to the defense?"

I pulled Reynolds to the side, "Reynolds, keep these people calm and check for injured. I need to contact command to warn them about the collaborators' threat."

Reynolds nodded and went to work as I called command.

"This is sergeant Dominia reporting in. We have uncovered important intelligence that there may be a rebel cell of Republic Collaborators operating in the utility tunnels."

A short silence followed, "Roger that sergeant Dominia you are ordered to hold position until reinforcements arrive. Once reinforcements arrive you are to locate these collaborators and eliminate them. Is this understood?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good." The voice replied back, "The reinforcements should be there in 3 minutes."

With that, the comms turned off.

"Alright, squad take position! We are to hold this position for an ETA of 3 minutes!

After two minutes of silence, a noise was heard from deeper in the tunnel. The voices of several men could be faintly heard, however, due to the corner in the tunnel we couldn't see where the voices were coming from.

"Everyone take cover," I whispered.

A few seconds later the sources of the voices became visible. Several Echani men wearing military vests and holdings a variety of weapons. They continued walking down the tunnel head towards us, unaware that we were here.

"What should we do sir?" Reynolds whispered.

Just as Reynolds asked that our reinforcements arrived. The men on the other side of the tunnel immediately opened fire. Fortunately for our reinforcements, the men were poor shots and used out of date weaponry.

"Squad fire!" I yelled.

We opened fire on the enemy along with the reinforcements. Being outnumbered and outmatched the rebel soldiers fled into the tunnel, leaving several dead behind them.

"Sergeant Dominia! Status report!"

I turned behind me to see a man in a captains uniform who had arrived with the reinforcements.

"Sir!" I saluted, "We have a group of civilians in the room next to me, they are the source of the information about the rebel cells."

"And those men who just attacked us?" He responded back.

"We don't know anything about them, sir, they only arrived a few seconds before you did."

He mumbled to himself before giving new orders, "Alright Sergeant Dominica, your squad will be assisting us in clearing out these tunnels of hostile elements. A medical squad will be here soon to deal with the civilians. Keep and guard, we don't know what might be hiding down here."

We followed the tunnel from where the enemy squad came from. Inspecting the corpses gave us little information on our enemy except for the fact that they seemed fairly poorly armed. We continued advancing into the tunnel until we reached a crossroads in the tunnel with three different tunnels leading in different directions. The two tunnels to the side were smaller utility tunnels while the main one continued forward.

"Squads, halt!" The captain boomed. "We can't go through every tunnel at once. Leave the droids to hold this position while we inspect the two side tunnels." He turned to face me, "Sergeant Dominica, you take squad two and inspect the right tunnel, the other two squads will inspect the left tunnel. I'll stay here with the droids to keep watch on the main tunnel." He turned to face my squad, "Oh and because of the close quarters combat you should equip yourself with blaster shotguns." He pointed to a weapon transport droid he brought with us.

I nodded in agreement and my squad and I equip ourselves with the shotguns and moved down the tunnel. The tunnel was much darker and thinner than the main one, it was also so cramped that only two people could stand next to each other, the darkness was only lightened up with some emergency red lights which did little to brighten up the tunnel, fortunately, our shotguns had built in blasters to brighten up the place. After what seemed like an eternity of walking in the crushing darkness of the endless tunnel we found a large metal door on the side of the tunnel.

A small blood trail led into it but no bodies were seen in the area. Upon closer inspection of the door, it appeared to be locked.

"Radio the Captain that we found something," I ordered to a comm trooper.

He attempted to message the Captain but failed. "It's jammed, the rebels must have some type of jammer in the area. It must be pretty weak though, the comms worked only a few minutes ago."

"Maybe they are hiding in that room?" A soldier asked.

"We better clear that room anyway, Dawson, apply a breach charge." The sergeant of the other squad ordered.

Dawson set the charge, the other sergeant and I took position on the sides of the door, shotguns ready, while the rest of the squads prepared to rush the room.

A bang went off making a breach in the door. As expected two rebel soldiers stood on the other side behind some barricades. They must have been surprised as when we turned to fire they were frantically bringing up their weapons to fire.

The shotgun blasts quickly dispatched both of the guards and both squads rushed into the room. We quickly secured it and found a small maintenance door on the other side.

The door opened.

"What the hell was all th- FU-!"

He was interrupted by several shotgun blasts.

His body flew back into the room under the force of the blasts. Upon entering the room the few we discovered a few beleaguered "soldiers" (if they could even be called that) and a makeshift medical room. I am hard pressed to call it a medical room as it was little more than several injured men lying on cots. One young soldier walked up with his hands in the air, "Wait, wait… We surrender" He said as he put down his slugthrower.

The rest of the remaining soldiers, upon seeing their comrade surrender followed suit. All except one.

"You damn cowards!" He pointed his blaster at us, he switches between target to target as if he thought he could blast us all.

"We will never surrender to you Separatist dogs! Look at the destruction your rebellion has brought!"

"Look." I said calmly, trying to calm him down, "Put down your weapons, there's no point dying for nothing."

"It isn't for nothing! It's for the Republic!" He reached for a grenade in his back pocket but was blasted by Reynolds.

"Damn traitors," Reynolds said under his breath.

There were no more incidents. The comm jammer was disabled and the surrendering collaborators were captured, but this victory put a pit in my stomach. Before combat was just against clones, these, these people were like us. The bloody corpses did little to ease my worries which only increased as the adrenaline rush wore off. Thinking back to the city, of what once was there and how Reynolds acted upon seeing his home destroyed. I only could think of one thing. _Hell_. This campaign is going to be hell. And it's just getting started.


	7. Another Day in Hell

Author's note: Thank you to DarthWriter76 and Titanmaster 117 for the reviews.

The atmosphere in the room was tense. The bloody corpses of the collaborators had been moved out of the way and put under sheets but the puddles of blood still remained. The captured collaborators had looks of both intense hatred and fear especially when Reynolds walked by. Despite Reynolds being right for shooting the traitor when he refused to surrender the coldness in how the killing was done put everyone on edge, especially when everyone else was still sickened by killing our fellow people, even if they were traitors. The only "bright side" to all this was that radio contact had been re-established with the destruction and the jammer, so at least we would be moving out soon.

"Sirs." The comm officer said, "Just got orders from the Captain. He said we are to return to his position immediately with the prisoners."

"Roger that," I said exhausted.

Upon returning to the captain's position we found the team assigned to the other tunnel had returned as well. Apparently, they had discovered no resistance and as such the tunnel was deemed secure. That only left the main tunnel to search.

"Squads." The captain said, "You are to be relieved of duty for today. Head back to the capitol building and rest up for the night. You have served your nation well today so enjoy the night off, you've earned it."

The return to the capitol building was thankfully uneventful. We handed over the prisoners over to command and went to sleep for the night. While walking to the barracks I saw some of the refugees earlier, at least they were safe. Entering the barracks I collapsed on the bed. By now night descended on the city but that didn't stop the war. Fires lite up the skyline and the booming of artillery remained a constant. At least the Republic are being pushed out of the city even if it is at a slow rate. Finally, despite the booming of artillery and the sounds of war, I closed my eyes and entered a dream filled sleep.

I woke up in the morning in a cold sweat and breathing heavily. Quickly shaking it off I got out of bed. It was still very early in the morning and we would be sent back into the war soon so I quickly got dressed and assembled my squad. While waiting for deployments we decided to check on Kintar.

Entering the medical bay we found that it was a grizzly scene. Dozens of injured soldiers and civilians lay on cots. Doctors and medics ran from bed to bed trying to stabilize the many patients. Eventually, we found Kintar's cot. Despite being so early Kintar lay awake with his leg in a cast.

Looking at Kintar in his injured state conjured an immense feeling of guilt and failure nearly overwhelmed me.

He weakly turned his head, "Hey guys."

Reason spoke first, "Hey Kintar, how's the leg?"

"The leg is fine, Doc said I'll be able to walk again in a week or so." He said softly, "I'm just a bit woozy from the painkillers."

"Good to hear, we gotta get that lazy ass of yours out of bed and back to the field," Isaac said jokingly.

The more I thought about Kintar's injuries the more the feeling of failure threatened to overwhelm me.

Kintar chuckled, "Don't worry, I wouldn't want to let you guys get all the glory anyway."

Kintar looked at me confused. "Hey, Kinsaris. You ok? You look paler than me."

"Oh ya." I snapped out of it. "I'm fine. I'm just glad that we made it through the first day."

"I can celebrate to that!" Kintar cheered.

After another minute of talking with Kintar command ordered us to report to the field to assist in reclaiming the city. Even after a day of fighting the clones still held several fortified positions throughout the city added to the fact that most of the retreating clones had taken position in the nearby hills made the situation precarious.

Marching into the assembly yard with several other squads we arrived right at the start of the Major's speech.

"Warriors, soldiers, saviors of our great nation! We stand on the very precipice of victory! To liberate our great city from the Republic tyrants! But the Republic dogs, like the roaches they are, still hold onto several positions within our great city. We will push the filth out of our lands!"

"HURRAH" The crowd cheered.

"You! You will be the blade that dislodges these parasites from our great city!"

"HURRAH!"

"Your mission will be the end the savage occupation of the central library building and liberate it from the Republic tyrants! You will do your mission well and you will do it with pride!"

"DEATH TO THE REPUBLIC!"

After the speech, the squad leaders were briefed on the plan. It was a rather simple plan, the library had already been subject to artillery bombardment leaving the clone position weakened and exposed. Squads 1 through 3 would stage a diversionary assault on the main entrance. Squads 4 through 5 would attempt a breach of the right entrance while squads 6 through 7 take the left. My squad was squad 7. Each assault would also have a leading Lieutenant to better organize the squads. Once the briefing was complete we bordered the vehicles which would bring us to the battlefield.

The ride was quiet. Looking at _my_ squad everyone seemed tense at the upcoming battle. _My squad_. That's a funny thought. A day ago I had never seen combat and now I have the responsibility for an entire squad of people. Looking at my squad we are already a member down. After leading the squad for only a single battle Kintar almost died under my command.

I shook my self out of this self-doubt. _"No"_ I can't let this thought get to me. My father leads thousands, millions more people then I do and he stays strong and as such so must I.

The vehicle stopped and the driver turned to talk to us, "We're here. Get to your assembly points."

Moving quickly to our attack point we met up with the squad that would be assisting in our attack. The lieutenant in charge of our group was an Echani woman of about the age of 30 named Martha Gilles.

The side of the library was a massive brick wall with many windows. The building had obviously suffered greatly from the bombardment as many holes were scattered throughout it including the large hole on the bottom floor that we were expected too. Several clone sentries waited in the hole as we waited behind a thin line of prefab cover.

"Squads!" Let Netinet Gilles yelled, "Once the signal is given these super battle droids will their rockets into the clone position, after that the droidikas will role in to secure the position and only then will you begin your assault! Do not begin the attack before that!"

We waited and waited, the tension was building up. Several soldiers twitched seemingly unable to keep from beginning the attack until after 5 minutes we heard an explosion come from the front.

"All droids fire!"

A hailfire of rockets blasted the clones meager defensives. Their metal and sandbag cover was obliterated under the furry. Next, the droidikas rolled in quickly establishing a foothold.

The lantern took a step forward and pointed her vibroblade at the breach, "Move it troopers!"

Quickly charging into position, we entered the library. The inside was massive with a grand room stacked with selves of holobooks and even paperbacks, overlooking the room was a great balcony that contained even more books and furniture. Such a building of culture like this being destroyed like this was sickening. Taking a look at Reynolds he seemed to agree.

Several clones took position on the balcony but they were heavily suppressed by us and the droids. Soon the squads sent to assault the other side of the library became visible on the other side of the great room. With the sides of the room secured that only left several clones in a fortified position in the center of the room combined with the clones on the balcony. Problem is that as long as the clones held the center we couldn't assist the main assault in the front of the building.

The lieutenant shouted her orders. "Squads suppress the group in the middle, third and fourth squads will take the balcony!"

" _Simple enough, not much danger in just suppressing a few hopeless clones."_

And I was right. The other squads quickly took the balcony and with the height advantage, we easily dispatched the clones. Now came the hard part, we had to eliminate the large garrison guarding the main entrance.

The main entrance was cut off from the main room only by a thin wood wall making the plan to simply place some explosives to blast them out.

"3! 2! 1!" _*Blast!_

Several massive holes opened up allowing a mass attack on the clones from their back flank.

The clones were taken completely by surprise as they were now being attacked from both sides. Taking out my vibroblade I directly engaged the clones. Slowly fighting my way through the horde but unlike previously I was shaky and sloppy. I even took a painful bruise from a clone hitting me with his rifle.

As the dust settled the battle seemed to be a complete victory. We had taken virtually no casualties while the clones had been completely decimated. Yet I still had a strange feeling in my gut and my hands still shook.

One of the lieutenants climbed up some rubble overlooking us.

"Well done! We have the main floor along with most of the upper levels secure! All that's left is to secure the basement and whatever of those disgusting clones still remain in the upper levels! Squads 1 through 3 will clear out the upper levels, the rest of you will clear out the basement."

" _So far so good. No casualties and the mission is almost complete."_

Walking down the old, stone basement steps we found the basement surprisingly empty. The basement seemed shocking empty, despite a strange sickly smell coming from an unknown area.

With seemingly little threat the groups split up to search the basement, still, on guard on the off chance, there was still someone down here. Navigating the narrow corridors Reason and I reached a door with the smell of blood coming from the other side.

Carefully opening the door we were met by a shocking sight. Several clones lied dead from what looked to be self-inflicted injuries. Taking a closer look we found one clone kneeling on the floor looking at the other wall.

"My brothers gave everything for the Republic." He whimpered. "And so will I."

It was only then that I saw what he was holding. _A detonator._ But by then it was far too late.


End file.
